New Roots Garden Intern

The New Roots program at IRC is an initiative to support gardening, food security, nutrition, enterprise, and production within the US network of IRC offices. New Roots Tucson supports refugee food security and aids in their transition to the community through gardening, local food access initiatives and small business farming. We are looking for committed, inventive, hard-working, and enthusiastic individuals with interests in organic farming and community empowerment. The position works alongside a New Roots staff member on site in the gardens as well as planning virtually and in the office. This summer, the New Roots team will be working with participants to plan for and build a greenhouse, and the intern will be involved in planning and development. The New Roots Intern would provide support to increase the capacity of New Roots programming at IRC in Tucson.

RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Help staff with ongoing garden projects at 4 garden sites (e.g. planting, cleaning, weeding, general site maintenance).
• Develop new infrastructure projects to benefit the refugee garden sites (compost systems, greenhouse, permaculture infrastructures, murals, accessible infrastructure, post-harvest wash station improvements, etc.)
• Assist with preparation and presentation of farm and garden workshops.
• Communicate with farm and garden participants about upcoming events and to share relevant gardening and farming information.
• Assist in securing donations of materials and technical advice to support community gardeners.
• Track inventory of seeds, tools, and materials for the program.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: 

• Sustainable agriculture methods in urban environments
• Gain a better understanding of the challenges associated with food access 
• Practice communicating with limited English speakers
• Practice languages you may be learning (Swahili, Arabic, Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, French, Dari, Spanish)
• Monitoring and evaluation